WoW Classic's Cataclysm servers are bringing back heaps of what you remember from the 14-year-old expansion, but not everything. An infamous line where Garrosh calls Sylvanas a "b***h" has been cut despite making a return just one month ago.
Back in the original expansion, the Silverpine Forest questline featured a back-and-forth between Sylvanas and Garrosh that resulted in the latter resorting to profanities before storming off, warning the Banshee Queen that we all have to meet our makers someday and that she may do so sooner rather than later. The line lands well with some as World of Warcraft seldom includes swearing, though others find the derogatory language needless.
Regardless, the line stood for around 10 years before Blizzard first removed it in 2020. For the narrative lead of the time, Steve Danuser, Garrosh's point of view comes across as "just fine" after the edit.
"I make no apologies for removing the word," he says in reply to one fan. "Everyone, of course, is entitled to their own opinion. But we felt it was time for it to go, and it's not coming back."
𝐒𝐘𝐋𝐕𝐀𝐍𝐀𝐒 𝐈𝐒 𝐀 𝐁*𝐓𝐂𝐇 𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐋𝐋Back in 2020, former lead narrative designer Steve Danuser had removed a line where Garrosh calls Sylvanas a 'bitch'. The reasoning behind the removal was that he had received feedback from a team member after the voice line… pic.twitter.com/EJNuJnpORuMarch 8, 2024
And yet, come back it did—for a short stint. While WoW Classic's Cataclysm servers aren't due to go live until May 20, players have been able to try parts of it on the Cataclysm beta. Last month, players found the line restored, only for an update to remove it again this month.
The voice line Garrosh delivers to Sylvanas at the start of the Silverpine Forest questline has been adjusted on the Cataclysm Classic Beta pic.twitter.com/bb0nCky86MApril 8, 2024
As to why the line returned and vanished in the space of a month, you'll need to wait for Blizzard to speak on that. Mind you, since the Activision Blizzard lawsuit of 2021 brought to light numerous claims of a "frat boy" culture at the Warcraft studio, various in-game changes have been made to games like World of Warcraft and Overwatch. The latter has seen various jokes relating to mounts and more change, while the latter saw a prominent character renamed. Given the nature of Sylvanas and Garrosh's verbal spat, you can see why Blizzard might reckon the line is best left in the past.
